Chapter 116: Heavenly Spiritual Root Potential — She’s Only Eighteen

The once pure white moon was now completely shrouded in a bloody hue, and the myriad stars gradually lost their light. The Sixth Illusion descended.

Under the blood moon, the magical beasts across the desert grew restless, unleashing piercing howls. The entire desert echoed with waves of beastly roars. Even the subterranean beasts in hibernation burrowed up through the sand and rampaged across the surface.

As if triggered by some unseen signal, the beasts scattered throughout the desert roared in unison, a tremendous surge of spiritual power sweeping across the dunes.

The flame beast guarding the Black Tortoise bronze platform was also summoned. Fiery red liquid oozed from the cracks in its hide, dripping onto the sand and igniting flames where it fell.

It roared too, but unlike the other beasts, its voice was low and hoarse, like the final gasp of life, a dying whisper to its kin before its end.

The flame beast lowered its head. Only after the chorus of beasts faded did it lift its heavy skull again. Its head resembled a lion’s, but atop it sprouted a pair of broken horns etched with flame-like patterns from base to tip.

It was so close to Lian Mu that she could feel its searing heat. Any closer and it would be no different from standing beneath four blazing suns.

The flame beast flicked its tail, bent its forelimbs, ready to pounce — like an arrow about to be loosed from the bow.

Lian Mu knew it was searching for the perfect spot to tear into. She aimed the tip of her sword at its eyes, an action that utterly enraged it.

The flame beast lunged straight at her, fangs bared for her shoulder. Every step it took set the desert aflame, crimson lotuses blooming in its wake.

The surge of spiritual power after the beasts’ chorus still affected cultivators. As it pounced, Lian Mu’s vision flickered, as if the world had misaligned — her head buzzed.

The fiery tongue grazed her shoulder. Lian Mu snapped back to her senses and swung her sword at its paw.

When the blade of Wealth Bringer scraped the flame beast’s paw, it suddenly turned into fire, the sword slicing through harmlessly.

A scorching pain seared the back of her hand. This flame was not normal; it felt just like the molten fire in Thousand Spirit Peak’s lava caves — not just painful but tingling to the nerves.

She retreated two steps, feeling the burn on her skin stoke a deeper irritation inside her. She gathered her spiritual power and swung to block the beast’s side strike.

Her blade jammed into the beast’s maw. Its jaws ground against the sword’s edge without leaving so much as a scratch. It tried to spew fiery red liquid from its mouth, but Lian Mu instantly pulled the sword free and stabbed through its tongue, twisted her wrist, and sliced it clean off.

The severed tongue fell and turned to flame, burning to ash within moments.

Now, the flame beast’s body was half-formed of fire, only some organs retaining physical shape. The whole creature looked like a mobile fireball — scorching and blinding.

So this was the metamorphosis of a high-level beast?

Nothing like the green-clawed toads she’d faced before.

Lesser beasts weathered their metamorphosis in hiding, seeking safety in their fragile state. High-level beasts, on the other hand, went berserk, unleashing all their might to slay every threat nearby.

Lian Mu thought of this, ignoring the burn on her hand. Her grip on the sword only tightened, her excitement growing with each clash.

If she could seize this beast’s crystal core, she’d strike it rich.

She felt her blood heat up, her palms burn, spiritual power bleeding from her veins — yet this time, the drain brought an inexplicable thrill.

Wealth Bringer’s blade was ensnared by the beast’s thorny tail. As it constricted, faint cracks spread along the sword’s edge.

Lian Mu no longer cared about grade differences. She used brute force, wrenching the binding apart. She stepped on the beast’s paw and pivoted her sword tip toward its knee.

The tail yanked hard, holding Wealth Bringer fast. Lian Mu refused to yield. Her whole body felt unshackled, her footing almost weightless.

The flame beast’s wild emotions seeped into her, fueling her own urge to end this quickly.

It seemed to relish the fight but grew more furious as each strike missed. Its body began to quake, spiritual power leaking outward.

Lian Mu had never felt a beast’s spiritual force so potent and domineering. Within its flaming form, she glimpsed a floating object.

— The flame beast’s heart, its crystal core.

A beast’s crystal core was extremely unstable during metamorphosis. If the beast failed, the core would explode with it.

Lian Mu fixed her gaze on that core and tried to yank Wealth Bringer free of its tail. The beast refused, snarling and snapping at her with fangs and claws.

Its roar grated on her nerves. With her sword trapped, her frustration surged uncontrollably — without a second thought, she pulled with brute strength.

“She’s gone mad! At this rate, her sword can’t handle it — it’ll shatter completely.”

Outside the illusion, the elders watching all felt the Returning Immortal Sect’s second-seat sword cultivator was far too reckless.

Murong Yi’s face darkened. “Stop! Stop now…”

But his voice could not reach inside the illusion.

“She usually abandons her sword so decisively. Why can’t she let go now?” Xin Wanbai was equally displeased with Lian Mu’s behavior. She clearly could have escaped.

Shang Liu cast a cool glance, then shook his head. “Her sword is already breaking apart. She can only hope this guardian beast shows mercy.”

But everyone knew that was impossible. Beasts were nothing like humans; they had no sense of moderation. Some particularly vicious ones didn’t even eat their prey — they just delighted in biting off limbs for sport.

“The guardian beast was meant for the sect’s chief disciples. A second-seat has no business interfering,” Cheng Ling said calmly. “When she rescued Shen Wuxie earlier, she should’ve known her place and left instead of staying to fight it.”

“The Returning Immortal Sect’s chief team is in the second realm. There’s no chief team here in the desert. To bring them out, someone must open the four symbols mirror. Unfortunately, their second-seat choice is poor. Who lets a three-root cultivator be second-seat? Even Azure Profound Sect’s second-seat sword cultivator has a single root, nearly matching Returning Immortal Sect’s chief sword cultivator.”

Cheng Ling continued, “The Returning Immortal Sect’s second-seat sword cultivator probably wants ranking points. Slaying a guardian beast would easily place her in the top thirty of the Yulan Ranking. Ambition is good, but sometimes you shouldn’t overestimate yourself.”

“Wait, what’s that?” A Clear Thought Sect artifact refiner elder suddenly stood, leaning in to examine the recording. “Her sword… it’s turning to flame?”

At those words, all the elders froze, eyes shifting back to the image. They saw Lian Mu gripping her sword — the blade’s tip was shattered from the beast’s tail, but instead of falling away, the fragments turned to blazing fire, fusing with the remaining blade.

Shang Liu’s hand slipped, spilling tea from his cup. “…”

“Shang Liu, isn’t this illusion giving fire-root sword cultivators too much of a boost?” Cheng Ling said.

Shang Liu frowned, studying the flaming blade closely. “This isn’t a boost from the illusion.”

Cheng Ling asked, “Then what is it?”

“This is her own power.”

Silence filled the room for a long while.

“To turn a sword into a spirit blade — either you have a Heavenly Spiritual Root or the sword has been attuned to its master for centuries… How long has she had that sword?”

Xin Wanbai answered, “She’s only eighteen.”

Shang Liu paused, then said, “She has the potential for a Heavenly Spiritual Root.”

Murong Yi said coldly, “Impossible. She’s clearly a three-root. I’ve guided her for so long — I know perfectly well she’s metal, wood, and fire.”

Every sword elder present fell silent. “…”

A metal-wood-fire spiritual root choosing to become a sword cultivator… such a strange combination, none of the four great sects has a second one like this.

“We’ll ask her about this once she comes out,” Xin Wanbai said. “For now, let’s just hope she gets out safely.”

Inside the illusion.

Lian Mu had already managed to pull her sword free. The sword she’d just repaired, which had cost her so much, was reduced to shards again with one swipe from this flame beast.

The moment she thought about this, rage surged through her chest, and the flames on her sword burned even fiercer.

The flame beast sensed her emotions and entered its final frenzied assault. With a long roar, its tail retracted into its body, and it charged at her, limbs gradually melting into its torso until it became a rolling fireball. The wave of spiritual power it released stirred every awakened beast nearby.

“Want to see whose fire burns hotter?”

Just seeing it infuriated Lian Mu. The place where her palm gripped the hilt was scalding hot. She poured all her spiritual power into her sword, and blood began to seep from the corners of her eyes.

The moment the fireball was about to reach her, she lifted her sword and slashed.

“Boom—!”

In an instant, the clash of two torrents of spiritual power erupted like an explosion.

A streak of flame ripped through the sky. After swallowing the fireball, it didn’t lose momentum but shot straight toward the barrier behind the four symbols mirror.

The instant it struck the barrier, it bounced back a massive wave of heat. The sky blazed bright, and the entire desert was flooded with light.

The blast flipped over the flame beast’s corpse; what was left of it immediately melted into a pool of blood that evaporated in an instant.

Lian Mu stood unscathed at the center of the heat wave, untouched by her own spiritual power, but all the spiritual energy in her body had been depleted. She collapsed to the ground, barely propping herself up with her sword.

Her vision was a blurry red, so she raised a hand to wipe her eyes, then fished out several spirit restoration pills and swallowed them.

After downing an entire bottle, her strength slowly returned.

She glanced at the remains the flame beast left on the sand—only a single crimson crystal core and an inner pellet remained, the rest gone as if it had never existed.

She picked up the inner pellet and crystal core, brushed off the sand, and tucked them into her spatial pouch. Then she shifted over to the Black Tortoise bronze platform and, relying on memory, used the blank talisman she’d snatched from Shen Wuxie to draw the required pattern.

When she finished, she pressed the talisman onto the snake-headed turtle-body statue in the center. A white light flashed inside the four symbols mirror, and the barrier behind it gradually turned transparent.

“The Four Symbols Black Tortoise Mirror is now open. All Returning Immortal Sect disciples may freely enter and exit the second realm.”